Another and most probable explanation of this astounding story was that what Canon Liddon and his friend really saw, “was a watchman who had mounted on his stake, probably to look at the steamer descending the Save.”[109] Anybody may be mistaken, even distinguished ecclesiastics; but what, in such quasi‐sacred persons was scarcely to be expected, was the tenacity with which they stuck to the impalement theory, after it was exploded in the minds of all impartial persons. Even high dignitaries of the Church don’t like being laughed at.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] “History of the Ottoman Empire,” vol. ii. p. 356.
[2] “La Motraye,” La Haye, 1727, vol. i. pp. 383, 462.
[3] See the “Relation du Baile Garzoni,” of 1586.
[4] See Gervinus’ “Insurrection et Régéneration de la Grèce,” vol. i. p. 16.
[5] Pozzo di Borgo to Count Nesselrode, November 1828.
“The First Dragoman of the Russian Embassy to Mahmoud Nedim.[A]